Updates

Term 1, 2017-18

Welcome to the new term. A reminder that seminars begin in Week 2; please contact the English office if you find discrepancies in your timetables.

Note that a talk of interest to all Modern World Literatures students takes place this Friday, 6 October at 5pm in Oculus 1.04 - “Digitalisation, Politics and Literature: Or Why Literature Matters?” by Tabish Khair (Arhuis University, Leverhulme Guest Professor at Leeds). The talk will examine why – and how – creative literature matters in an age of ‘post-truth.’

Summer 2017

Welcome to all new students in 2017-18. You are encouraged to read across the syllabus in preparation for the module. Note that Goethe's Faust Part I poses particular challenges for readers of the translated text, so it's especially helpful to familiarise yourself with the play before term begins. A useful commentary can be found in Nicholas Boyle's Goethe: Faust Part One (Cambridge). Marshall Berman provides an illuminating reading (also covering Part II of the play) in his chapter “Goethe’s Faust: The Tragedy of Development,” from All that is Solid Melts into Air (Verso), highly recommended as background reading for the module. In addition, you can get a handy interpretive overview of the period covered by the module in Eric Hobsbawm's four volumes listed under Set Texts.